Structural device



Nov. 3, 1959 o. 1.. GREENMAN STRUCTURAL DEVICE Filed March 20, 1958INVENTOR.

ORVAL L. GR=N MAN ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofiice 2,910,740Patented Nov. 3, 1959 2,910,740 STRUCTURAL DEVICE Orval L. Greenman,Grand Rapids, Mich., assignor to The Bulman Corporation, Grand Rapids,Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application March 20, 1958, Serial No.722,759 Claims. (Cl. 20--11) This invention relates to a frame memberadapted to support and guide a slidable closure panel and, particularly,to a frame member which is formed of a plurality of parts of dissimilarmaterials, at least one of said parts being extruded, said parts beingcapable of being easily and rapidly assembled to form a firm and rigidframe member.

Designers and manufacturers of various types of sliding closure panelunits adapted for use as cupboard doors, store counter doors, certaintypes of storm windows and other uses, have long recognized that suchunits employing components which can be readily and inexpensivelymanufactured by extruding, rolling or otherwise forming long lengths ofsuch components and subsequently cutting such extrusions to whateverlength is desired for the fabrication of an individual unit, are ofextreme value and many designs have been offered for this purpose.However, these prior designs have, in general, been sufiicientlycomplicated that whatever saving was effected by the use of extrusion,rolling or other continuous methods of fabrication were at leastpartially offset by the increased cost of assembling the parts soformed.

Further, in sliding door units of the types generally indicated above,it is desirable to minimize the noise created by the sliding movement ofthe door. This is sometimes done by providing a non-metallic liner inthe door frame for supporting and guiding the door and, sometimes, byproviding a non-metallic heading for the door member itself. However,these expedients have not been found to be completely satisfactory,either because they made the door unit more complicated and, therefore,more difficult and expensive to fabricate and assemble or because theydid not effectively minimize the noise.

A further problem which is particularly acute when the door and framestructure are both made from aluminum, is that galling or burringinevitably occurs when aluminum parts are caused to be rubbed together.

Accordingly, a principal object of the invention has been to provide animproved and simplified frame structure for supporting and guiding asliding closure panel for use in cupboards, store counters, slidingwindows and the like.

A further object of the invention has been to provide an improved framestructure, as aforesaid which can be made at least in part from extrudedmembers.

A further object of the invention has been to provide an improved framestructure, as aforesaid, which includes a structural frame member whichmay be either of steel and formed by rolling or of an extruded lightmetal, such as aluminum, and a panel-engaging member of an extrudedplastic material, such as a vinyl plastic.

A further object of the invention has been to provide an improved framestructure, as aforesaid, including outer members of a conventionalstructural shape, as U-shaped or even partially tubular shape, which areformed of a material of substantial structural strength,such as steel,whereby such structural members may be formed into a load-bearing frameby appropriate corner connections,

such as by welding, and wherein the inner, or panelcarrying members canbe assembled subsequent to the assembly of the structural, orload-bearing, members.

A further object of the invention has been to provide an improved framestructure, as aforesaid, wherein the parts can be readily assembled asdesired and, further, wherein different kinds of plastic panel-engagingparts can be used as desired in connection with a given structuralmember.

A further object of the invention has been to provide an improved framestructure, as aforesaid, which is of simple, clean and pleasing linesand which can be incorpo' rated readily into a wide variety of specificdesigns.

Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to personsacquainted with products of this general type upon reading of thefollowing disclosure and inspection of the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a typical closure structureembodying the invention.

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of Figure 1.

Referring to Figure l, a typical closure structure embodying theinvention includes a sill member 1, a header member 2, and two stilemembers 3 and 4 which are mountable around an opening in the structurewith which they are to be associated, such as a store counter, in anyconvenient and conventional manner. The sill member 1, header member 2and stiles 3 and 4 are secured together at their respective ends in anyconvenient and conventional manner, such as by welding of the outer, orstructural, members. The panels 6 and 7 are supported and guided by thesill, header and stile members for horizontal sliding movement forclosing the opening, or for opening onehalf of said opening, as desired,in a conventional manner.

Referring to Figure 2, there is shown the structure of the sill member 1and the header member 2 which constitutes the heart of the presentinvention. Similar members can, if desired, be used for the stiles butthis is a matter of choice. In this embodiment the sill and the headerare substantially identical and hence the following description willrefer solely to the sill member with the understanding that, except asnoted, this description ap-.

plies also to the header.

The sill member 1 includes an outer, structural member 11 and an innerpanel-supporting member 18. The structural member 11 in the illustratedembodiment of the invention comprises a generally U-shaped sectionhaving a web 12 and upstanding legs 13 and 14. The upper ends of thelegs 13 and 14 are turned inwardly to define flanges 16 and 17,respectively. The flanges lie at a substantial angle with respect totheir respectively connected legs, which angle, in the illustratedembodiment, is substantially a right angle.

The structural member 11 is preferably of a weldable material, asaluminum or steel, and may be formed by rolling, extrusion or otherprocess, preferably continuous, as convenient. Under some circumstancesthe structural member may also be extruded from a relatively rigid,strong plastic material, such as substantially unplasticized polyvinylchloride.

The panel-supporting member 18 of the sill structure 1 comprises agenerally U-shaped portion having a web 19 and upstanding legs 21 and22. The web 19 will normally be of a width no greater than the distancebetween the adjacent edges of flanges 16 and 17, and, will usually be ofslightly lesser width. The upper ends of the legs 21 and 22 are providedwith means, here outwardly opening, laterally extending grooves 23 and24, respectively, for interengaging with and firmly holding the flanges16 and 17. A fin 26 extends downwardly from the web 19.

' When the panels 6 and 7 are supported on web 19, fin ,26

contacts the upper surface of web 12 and assists in supporting theweight of the panels and the panel-supporting member 18 on thestructural member 11. However, this fin 26 may be omitted where suchsupplemental support for the panels and panel-supporting member 18 isunnecessary. it will be noted that the header member 2 is not, in thisembodiment, provided with a fin corresponding to fin 26 in the sillmember. The panel-supporting member 18 also has a fin or partition 23extending upwardly from the upper surface of flange 39 substantially atthe mid-point thereof and extending between the legs 21 and 22 anddefining therewith a pair of side-by-side, parallel channels forreception of the panels 6 and 7.

The panel-supporting member 18 may be formed as an extrusion of anyconventional extrudable material suit able for the service to which theclosure structure is to be put. For example, where the panels 6 and '7are made of aluminum, or at least are edged with aluminum, thepanel-supporting member lfi is desirably made from a plastic material onwhich the panels will slide readily but which will have the requisitestrength to remain firmly in position in the structural member 11.Substantially unplasticized, or at least moderately plasticized,polyvinyl chloride, nylon, or possibly 'lenite, may be used for thispurpose. It will be recognized that the possible choices of material forthis purpose are virtually limitless and that the foregoing examples areillustrative only.

The structural member 11 and the panel-supporting member 18 will beseparately formed and stockpiled for subsequent assembly and use asdesired. Each type may be formed from a variety of different materialsand the parts for a particular unit may be subsequently selected,assembled and used as required to provide the desired internal andexternal members of the frame structure according to the use to be madethereof.

:In assembling the structural member 11 and the panelsupporting member18, said panel-supporting member will be positioned with the web 19thereof positioned between the legs 13 and 1d of said structural member.The panelsupporting member will be urged transversely into thestructural member Ill and the legs 21 and 22 thereof will be temporarilydeformed and bent toward each other as said panel-supporting membermoves within said structural member. When the lower edges of grooves 23and 24 clear the flanges 16 and 17, the legs 21 and 22 will quickly snapback into their original position and, thus, said flanges will bereleasably received with said groove. Alternatively, the structuralmember 11 and panel-supporting member 18 may be assembled by aligningthe grooves 23 and 24 with the flanges 16 and 17 and sliding saidmembers axially with respect to each other.

vIn use, the panels 6 and 7 will be positioned, respectively, in thechannels between fin 28 and legs 21 and 22, respectively, and will beguided thereby. The panels will be free to slide longitudinally on thepanel-supporting member in conventional fashion. Desirably, and asindicated in Figure 2, the webs 19 of the sill member 1 and headermember 2 are spaced apart a distance greater than the height of panels 6and '7 by an amount slightly less than the distance between the upperedges of legs 1.3 and 14 and the web 19 so that the panels can beinserted into the channels by positioning the panel as shown in brokenlines at 6a in Figure 2, moving same to a position aligned with theappropriate channel and allowing same to drop into place. The panels maybe removed by the reverse series of steps. Obviously, the panels may beinserted or removed in other ways such as by removing one of the stilesand sliding the panels in sideways, if desired.

It will be apparent that the position of the tongues provided ,byflanges l6 and 17 and the grooves 23 and 24 can be reversed by placingthe grooves on the legs 13 and 14 and placing the tongues on the legsill and 22.

'Wnile a particular preferred embodiment of the inventionhas beendisclosed for illustrative purposes, it will changes or modifications aslie Within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A frame member adapted to support a pair of closure panels forsliding movement comprising in combination: an elongated, outer,structural member having a first web and a firstpair of substantiallyparallel legs extending therefrom, the outer ends of said legs beingturned in toward each other to define a pair of aligned,- inwardlydirected flanges facing each other; an elongated, inner,panel-supporting member positioned between said first pair of legs andhaving a planar second web parallel with said first web; a second pairof legs extending upwardly from the respective ends of said second weband substantially in parallelism with said first pair of legs, saidsecond pair of legs being resiliently deformable so that they may beflexed toward each other to fit between said flanges and then may snapback into their original position; said second pair of legs each havinga groove facing its associated leg of said first pair of legs, each saidflange being releasably received into a groove in its associated leg ofsaid second pair of legs whereby said panel-supporting member isreleasably secured to said structural member; and a partition extendingupwardly from said second web substantially in parallelism with saidsecond pair of legs and defining therewith a pair of channels into whichsaid closure panels may be received.

2. A frame member adapted to support a pair of closure panels forsliding movement, comprising in combination: a one-piece, elongated,U-shaped, structural member having a first planar web and a first pairof substantially parallel legs extending substantially at right anglesto said web, the outer ends of said legs being turned in toward eachother to define a pair of aligned, inwardly directedflanges; aone-piece, elongated substantially U-shap ed, inner panel-supportingmember positioned between said first pair of legs, said panel-supportingmember having a second planar web parallel with and spaced from saidfirst web and being of a width less than the spacing between theadjacent ends of said flanges; a second pair of legs extending upwardlyfrom the respective ends of said second Web and diverging upwardly withrespect to each other, said second pair of legs being resilientlydeformable so that they may be flexed toward each other to fit betweensaid flanges and then may snap back into their original position, saidsecond pair of legs each terminating at its upper end and having agroove facing its associated leg of said first pair of legs, the flangeson said first pair of legs being snugly but releasably received into thegrooves in said second pair of legs, respectively, whereby saidpanel-supporting member is releasably secured to said structural member;a partition integral with said panel-supporting member and extendingupwardly substantially from the mid-point of said second web anddefining with said second pair of legs a pair of channels into whichsaid closure panels may be received; and a support fin extendingdownwardly from said second web toward said first web.

3. A frame member adapted to support a pair of closure panels forsliding movement, comprising in combination: a one-piece, elongated,U-shaped, structural member having a first planar web and a first pairof substantially parallel legs extending substantially at right anglesto said web; a one-piece, elongated, substantially U-shaped, innerpanel-supporting member positioned between said first pair of legs, saidpanel-supporting member having a second planar web parallel with andspaced upwardly from said first web and being of a width less than thespacing between the opposing surfaces of said first pair of legs; asecond pair of legs extending upwardly from the respective ends of saidsecond web and diverging upwardly with respect to each other so that theremote edgesof the upper ends thereof are normally further apart thanthe adjacent edges of said first pair of legs, said second pair of legsbeing resiliently deformable so that they may be flexed toward eachother to fit between said first pair of legs and then may snap back intotheir normal position; interfitting means on said first and second pairof legs for releasably securing said panelsupporting member to saidstructural member; said panelsupporting member having an integralpartition extending upwardly substantially from the mid-point of saidsecond web, said partition and said second pair of legs defining a pairof upwardly flaring channels into which said closure panels may bereceived.

4. A frame member adapted to support a closure panel for slidingmovement, comprising in combination: an elongated, outer, structuralmember having a first web and a first pair of substantially parallellegs extending from said first web; an elongated, inner,panel-supporting member received between said first pair of legs, saidpanel-supporting member having a second web extending transverse to saidfirst pair of legs and located between the ends thereof and spaced fromsaid first web, said panel-supporting member having a second pair oflegs extending away from both said first web and said second websubstantially parallel with said first pair of legs, said second pair oflegs being resiliently deformable so that they may be flexed toward eachother and then may snap back into their original position, saidpanel-supporting member defining a channel opening away from said firstweb; and interfitting tongue and groove means on said first and secondpair of legs for releasably securing said panel-supporting member tosaid structural member.

5. A frame member adapted to support a closure panel for slidingmovement, comprising in combination: a onepiece, elongated,substantially U-shaped structural member having a first planar web and afirst pair of substantially parallel legs extending substantially atright angles to said first Web; a one-piece, elongated, substantiallyU-shaped, inner, panel-supporting member positioned between said firstpair of legs, said panel-supporting memher having a second planar webparallel with and spaced upwardly from said first web and being of awidth less than the spacing between the opposing surfaces of said firstpair of legs, said panel-supporting member having a second pair of legsextending upwardly from the respective ends of said second web and awayfrom both said first web and said second Web and diverging upwardly withrespect to each other so that the remote edges of the upper endsthereof, are normally further apart than the adjacent edges of saidfirst pair of legs, said second pair of legs being resilientlydeformable so that they may be flexed toward each other in order to fitbetween said first pair of legs and then may snap back into theiroriginal position; interfitting means on said first and second pair oflegs for releasably securing said panel-supporting member to saidstructural member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,608,672 Rappaport Nov. 30, 1926 2,430,124 Johnson Nov. 4, 19472,803,858 Rader Aug. 27, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 298,230 Italy July 1, 1932

